Sauk Village might offer bottled water as part of emergency plan

Edward Sullivan talks with other members of the community before Tuesday's special meeting between Sauk Village officials and residents at the Sauk Village Municipal Center.

Edward Sullivan talks with other members of the community before Tuesday's special meeting between Sauk Village officials and residents at the Sauk Village Municipal Center. (Armando L. Sanchez, Chicago Tribune)

Dennis Sullivan, Special to the Tribune

Sauk Village officials are working on an emergency plan and might provide residents with bottled water in response to a report that says the well water in the small south suburb is contaminated, the mayor said Tuesday night.

About 250 residents attended the Village Board's regular meeting, where Mayor Lewis Towers admitted, "The level of contamination is much higher than what we expected."

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said this week the drinking water in Sauk Village is polluted with vinyl chloride, and it gave the town five days to alert its nearly 10,500 residents.

Officials said they don't know the source of the vinyl chloride. Exposure to it in drinking water over many years can increase the risk of cancer, the U.S. EPA said.

Towers said he and other municipal representatives went to the Illinois attorney general's office in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon to meet with the IEPA about its findings.

A special meeting called in response to the IEPA findings was held Tuesday afternoon, but was abruptly halted with no information for the dozens of residents who attended. It began with board members meeting behind closed doors, where they attempted to have a conference call with state officials regarding the water, Towers said.

Sauk Village trustees were advised not to hold the conference call during executive session, Towers said, and after 30 minutes they came out of closed session and declined to address about 45 residents who were waiting, causing some outbursts demanding answers.

Towers, who ran for office promising to improve the water supply, did talk to reporters. He cited a March referendum in which voters approved changing the water supply to Lake Michigan water — a process expected to take years and cost residents hundreds of dollars a year on their water bills. "We're still moving in that direction," he said.

Lake Michigan water won't be hooked up to the town until 2016, according to recent estimates. Several suburbs surrounding it already have Lake Michigan water.

Towers said residents "have every right to be upset, (but) we're doing everything we can."

Asked if he drank the water, Towers replied, "No, I don't," but added most residents drink bottled water.

Thirty-year Sauk Village resident Joe Ciechomski attended the afternoon meeting and said he suspects pollutants in the water supply may have contributed to his mother's kidney cancer. Cheval Alston, a 12-year village resident, said he believes there's a link between his daughter's fibroid tumor and the water.

"It's come out brown, it's come out black," Alston said of the water.

Residents have known of problems with the water for years. A 2009 state notice to residents warned of vinyl chloride contamination but said state and village officials were working on the issue.

James Lambert, who moved into town 13 years ago, said he never drank the water because of the way it tasted. But, he added, he didn't know it could harm his health.

"Honestly, my dog won't drink the water," he said.

Ray Gize, who moved to the village shortly after its incorporation in 1957, said the water was excellent at first but has declined in the recent decades. Gize said the dwindling population already is unable to cover the cost of maintaining the aging infrastructure and will struggle to pay to upgrade water lines tying into Lake Michigan water.

Gize said he relies exclusively on bottled water and doesn't use municipal water for even his lawn.

Alston said the health benefits outweigh the financial problems.

"I'd rather pay an extra thousand dollars than watch my family die," he said.